The Declining Value Of Higher Education
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Saturday, September 6, 2025
This: “The student debt crisis isn’t a natural market phenomenon; it’s the predictable result of decades of government interference. Since 1980, average tuition and fees have increased by 1,200 percent, while consumer price inflation has risen only 236 percent over the same period.” Demanding that we ask, is it worth it?
Well, Derek Foster who wrote that piece does not think so:
University administrators are not using the increased tuition revenue to create smaller class sizes or improve students’ education. They are inflating the bureaucracy to create a colossal social justice organization.
Graduation now depends on ideological coursework; every student in the California State University system’s 23 campuses must take a class in ethnic studies or social justice. The point is twofold: indoctrinate students in radical leftist ideology and create education jobs for graduates with useless degrees such as San Francisco State’s Social Justice Education program. It’s a pyramid scheme designed to enrich the academic elite and cement progressive dogma in the young professional class.
John Hinderaker has found data to back this up:
We have seen indications of this for a while, but I believe this is the most alarming poll result I have seen yet:
Support for socialist policies and socialist candidates is now a majority position among younger voters in America.
A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and StoppingSocialism.com finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters ages 18 to 39 would like to see a democratic socialist candidate win the 2028 presidential election. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of under-40 voters would not want to see a democratic socialist elected president in 2028, and 20% are not sure.
Not seeing the value here. Even a so-called STEM education is not safe. I noted yesterday, when discussing DEI in math, “Academia is struggling behind the rest of us, but they are going to have to start failing kids again or we are no longer going to be capable of doing important things.”
This week, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) voted on a resolution that accused Israel of committing genocide in its war against Hamas….On Tuesday evening, Salo Aizenberg, a board member of HonestReporting and contributor to NGO Monitor, tested that proposition. After exploring the IAGS website, he found that he could become a member of the organization with just a $30 contribution. “This organization that purports to be a leading organization of scholars is open to anyone who is interested,” he told The Free Press.
In other words, no expertise needed to join this association of experts. So, indoctrination instead of education – credentials without standards, and those credentials often accrediting the teachers that provide this valueless education.
Hillsdale, of course, runs a classical education university. That is of inestimable value to those that are academically inclined. But anymore, so many go to college simply to get the necessary credentials for reasonable employment. I find myself wondering if the time has not come for some sort of trade school/apprentice program for professionals? A program that prepares you for the job market without all the university trimmings. We haven’t been building character in our universities for years now – that comes from home or not at all. Maybe it would be progress to provide the skill set without the pretension.
Emptying the pile:
Which story is peak California? This – “A COVID wave is washing over California, with the state seeing continued increases in the number of newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations as some officials urged the public to take greater precautions….The extent of the recent increases has prompted some county-level health officials to recommend that residents once again consider wearing masks in indoor public settings, at least until transmission has declined.” Or is it this – “Los Angeles emergency services were left red-faced on Wednesday after a double-incident in the San Fernando Valley saw, not one, but two fire department vehicles collide at the same intersection in less an hour.” (Read the details, it’s funnier than it sounds.) Stupid or inept? Which one best describes the formerly golden state?
Archimedes long ago said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” The E.P.A., since its founding, has been doing nothing but increasing the length of the lever and the strength of the fulcrum. It’s more than “mission creep.” They aren’t trying to save the planet anymore. “Climate change” is their battle cry to turn us purely socialist. So it is not surprising that as POTUS cuts the lever to size, interested parties are going to put up a fuss. It is extremely sad to me; however, that federal employees no longer know their place.
Pot smokers – stoned AND rude. Just what the world needs.
